Intertext And Its Functions In The Russian Economic Media Text

Abstract

Economic information is a mass consumer product today. The increased interest in economic news has influenced the expansion of the readership. Both specialists in the field of economics and ordinary readers are direct consumers of economic information. This study is aimed at analyzing the ways of presenting material in the Russian economic media text. The question of studying the ways of integration of the "foreign word" into the economic media text is an important cognitive-discursive paradigm of language science, so it is interesting for researchers. Authors consider intertextual inclusions that express the situational and semantic background of the source text. The actualization of relevant information enhances the effectiveness of the function of the impact of economic information on the reader. Therefore, the authors consider the concept of intertextuality as a mechanism for transmitting economic information to the audience, indicate the reasons for the lack of a generally recognized classification of intertext functions, and highlight the main functions of intertext and their role in text formation, the transmission of the meaning of economic news and the impact on the readership.

Keywords: Intertextualityeconomic media textinformation identificationintegration

Introduction

"Intertextuality" is a concept that was proposed by Kristeva ( 1978) to denote the phenomenon of the presence of any single text in conjunction with previous works.

With the help of intertextuality, a kind of “rewriting” of one text by another is carried out. Intertext, accordingly, acts as the aggregate of all the works reflected in the new text. Thus, the boundaries of intertextuality are mobile, they can take the form of allusions, citations, parodies, plagiarism, etc.

It's worth noting that various forms of manifestation of intertextuality are distinguished. Intertext can be considered both as a source of self-saturation of the created text, and as a kind of tool for text differentiation, due to reliance on the basic pretext. Thus, the phenomenon of intertextuality allows to analyze the explicit and implicit forms of interaction of two texts (the previous material and the new text) in a new way.

It’s important to note that journalists need to search for new ways and forms to include economic terminology and clarify economic information in media texts in modern conditions of increasing audience interest in economic information.

This demand for affordable economic news is the result of the impact of economic crises on the lives of ordinary citizens. Therefore, today economic media text is focused more on the average reader than a professional. Accordingly, the use of intertextuality helps to increase the effectiveness of the function of the impact of economic media text on the readership.

Problem Statement

“A number of language resources have a decisive influence on the lexical composition of the modern Russian economic media text” ( Bazanova & Popova, 2018, p. 176). Today there is a need to study the phenomenon of text formation due to the growing interest of non-specialist readers to economic processes. Thus, this study examines the influence of intertextuality on the semantic organization of economic messages, the explanation of economic information.

Research Questions

The authors set the tasks:

• to consider the main functions of intertext in economic media text;

• to determine the role of intertext in revealing the meaning of economic materials.

Purpose of the Study

Therefore, in this study, our goal is to study economic media texts in terms of the process of intertextuality. Thus, this research continues the modern perspective scientific researches considering process of functioning of an economic media text.

Research Methods

We don’t claim to cover the entire volume of available material on the subject of this research. However, we relied on the researches in which the phenomenon of intertextuality is studied ( Kristeva, 1978; Parshin, 2001; Suprun, 1998; Zemskaja, 1996).

The authors note the works of interdisciplinary nature in which the mutual influence of economic and linguistic factors is investigated ( Boers & Demecheleer, 1997; Gunko & Khuzina, 2018).

Such research methods as synthesis, generalization, the method of analysis of empirical material, the descriptive method, the method of content analysis, the method of analysis of lexical units of text were used to achieve the objectives set by the authors of the study.

Findings

“An important feature of modernism is that it is based on a mechanical understanding of the world and a representational view of knowledge in the mind” ( Kiraly, 2015, p.15). An important feature of postmodernism is based on the fact that the world is viewed as a form of knowledge about it, as the reality of signs that carry socially significant information. The world acts as a text. Thus, intertext can be considered as a quantum of formation and understanding of reality.

Kristeva ( 1978) calls intertextuality “permutation of texts”, because there is an intersection of the meanings of individual statements within the new text, their mutual neutralization and the emergence of a new meaning aimed at reading perception. Modern economic media text is combinatorics and productivity. Journalists have the opportunity to deconstruct the language of communication and choose the most convenient way to explain economic information (quotation, allusion, plagiarism, etc.) due to the interchange of many pretexts.

The use of intertextuality in economic media text affects not only the presentation method, but also the reader’s awareness of the proposed information. This is possible because the economic media text is filled with pretexts associated with the relation of filiation. The new text can both convey the exact meaning of the pretext, and completely change the status and nature of the quoted text with the help of the author's installation.

For example, in the article “Each Minister has his own Annushka” the author writes: “It’s noticed that if Federal TV channels begin to broadcast revelatory films such as "The case in the cap", it means that the official, political or any other career of the protagonist of the film has come to the end. As the Russian classic wrote, Annushka has already spilled her sunflower oil” (U kazhdogo ministra…, 2012, p.3).

In this fragment there is a reference to the text of M.A. Bulgakov's (2013) novel “The Master and Margarita”. It contains an allusion to the events that occurred with Berlioz, and Woland's quote is played out: “Annushka has already bought sunflower oil, and not only bought, but even spilled it” (p.17).

The use of intertext in the economic media text is designed for the reader, who is able not only to identify it, but also to decrypt it. The use of intertext in economic media text allows the reader to understand the indirect way of expressing author’s thoughts. The effect of simplifying complex economic information is achieved through an appeal to background knowledge (the use of precedent phenomena). The reader receives a reference to a fact well known to him, which makes it possible to decipher the economic term or to understand the essence of the economic situation.

In general, intertext is a way to achieve reader activity. The functions of intertext in the economic media text are very diverse, so it is very difficult to classify them.

Researcher Parshin ( 2001) distinguishes such intertext functions as:

• referential, when there is a direct reference to the information from the pretext;

• identification, contributing to the synchronization of the author and the reader;

• poetic, when the interaction between the author and the reader takes place in a playful way;

• metatextual.

Researcher Suprun ( 1998) highlights such functions as aesthetic, references to an authoritative source of information, revitalization of the text and clear transmission of a fragment of the message.

Researcher Zemskaja ( 1996) distinguishes such functions of intertext as creation of a riddle, poetization, travesty, parody, ridicule of dogmas.

We hold the view that intertext functions in economic media text are similar to the functions of the classical model of language functions, which was proposed by Jakobson ( 1975).

Thus, we can talk about the five functions of intertext in the economic media text.

1) Expressive function. Its manifestation occurs when the author brings to the reader information about his own pragmatic and linguistic-cultural attitudes and guidelines through the use of intertext. This is expressed in a careful selection of material (citations, allusions, etc.), which often serves not only as a way of author's expression, but also has an important effect on the audience. For example: “The main justification for the choice of those who are poorer and less educated is “The thief should be in prison”. With the same remark a few years ago, Vladimir Putin answered the question about the dismissal of businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky” (Korytina, 2013, p. 4).

The use in the article about the idea of amnesty for prisoners of a literal quote from the movie “The meeting place can't be changed” suggests that the reader remembers the quote and the episode. So he can draw a parallel between the precedent situation and reality, which will allow him to understand the content of the economic media text more clearly and correctly.

2) The appeal function is aimed at a specific recipient who can decrypt the used intertext, evaluate the author’s intention and draw his own conclusions about the published material analyzing the intent behind the intertext. So, it acts as a tool to attract the attention of a particular part of the audience.

There is a combination of appellative and contact-setting functions during intertext interaction. There is a contact between the author and the reader, a connection is established between their cultural and symbolic memory, ideological and political preferences, ethical and aesthetic tastes due to this merger.

For example, the article “East is a long business” refers to “How Russia is regaining lost ground in the Arab countries” (Belenkaya, 2019, p.1). In the material the line from the song “Petruha” by A. Ukupnik is played out: “East is a delicate matter, Petruha”. The appeal goes to the two sources at once: the famous Soviet film “White sun of the desert” and the songs of A. Ukupnik, who beat the plot of the film in his music video.

Thus, the author creates for the reader the most understandable picture of the political and economic relations between the Middle East and Russia, appealing to well-known sources.

3) A poetic function is an entertaining function, as the reader is faced with the need to recognize intertext, the complexity of which varies from easy decryption and recognition of a quote and source, to solving a complex puzzle created by intentional or unconscious intertextuality.

For example, in the article titled “Grandads-Robbers: why Verizon buys Yahoo!” the author writes: ““Big brother” appears in the US market in the face of Verizon, which is currently far ahead of the giants of Silicon valley in terms of traffic, user data and advertising opportunities. This will be a worthy response to all the young giants of the startup industry, if the grandads in the face of Verizon, Yahoo! and AOL will be able to create a supertargeting system that will significantly increase the effectiveness of advertising” (Chachava, 2016, p. 9).

The material uses a reference to the title of the film by Ryazanov “Grandads-Robbers”, which is used in a joking context, as well as a reference to D. Orwell's novel “1984”, to the character Big Brother who is the sole ruler of the state of Oceania and the leader of the party “Angsots”. The reader gets an idea of the situation in the US telecommunications market, where a new round of competition between young and promising companies and the largest “old-timer” of the startup industry is expected through such references.

4) The implementation of the referential function occurs when the reader is sent to information activated from an external text (pretext). The cognitive effect of intertext on the reader varies from simple to complex. The reader can either recall the author of the quote, or completely plunge into the situation associated with the case phenomenon. Thus, we can talk about the stylistic elevation or reduction of the text containing intertextual links.

For example, in an article about the closure of restaurants in Moscow due to the food embargo, higher rents and lower incomes of customers, the author increases the style of the material and makes it accessible to the reader through the use of intertextuality: “Good afternoon, friends! Restaurant Tapa De Comida says goodbye to you. Don Quixote was tired of fighting windmills, Dulcinea grew old, Bolivar could not bear his two. You were fun. Forgive us and don't be sad” ( Orlov, 2015, p. 6).

The journalist quotes a reference to one of the episodes of the novel by M. Cervantes “The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha”. This is the battle of the protagonist with windmills. The quote also includes a reference to the beloved of the protagonist of this novel Dulcinea del Toboso, in whose name he performed feats, and to the plot of O. Henry's story “The Roads We Take”.

5) The metatext function is manifested in the possibility of choosing the reader who discovered the intertext in the canvas of economic material, either to continue reading (in this case, background knowledge is enough to consider this fragment as an organic part of the material), or to turn to the pretext so that the displaced object can be interpreted based on to the source, and then recreate the whole picture described in the media text ( Fateeva & Parshin, 2019).

As an example, we cite the material of the Kommersant publication, prepared jointly with the Amediateka online service and Odgers Berndtson analysts: “Daenerys is an innovative leader. But operational processes are her weak point. She approves global business projects such as the capture of cities in the Slave Traders Bay without a business plan and without studying the specifics of the eastern market” ( Pesn' l'da i plameni, 2019, p. 4).

The American television series “Game of Thrones”, based on the novel “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R. R. Martin, is referred to in the material as an intertext.

Conclusion

The use of intertext is one of the main ways to increase the impact of economic media texts on the reader. At the same time, intertextuality does not require a high level of knowledge from readers. The audience is only offered the meanings that it should actualize. Thus, unfinished textual meanings are replenished and realized by the reader, who is able to detect the dual sounding of the material.

The fact of the perception of information is very important in the economic media text. The reader understands and analyzes complex economic information faster through textual allusions and parallels than if journalists conducted a dialogue with him in a dry professional language.

It is important to realize that intertextuality is a complex interaction of texts, historical events and readers, so the authors have a fine sense of economic processes and find ways to explain them not only through the semantic meanings of language units, but also through a dialogue with the memory and knowledge of the audience when creating an economic media text. The reader is involved in the process of forming the meaning of economic news, economic media text becomes aesthetically pronounced and more understandable for him.

Thus, we can say that the results of this research are data on language changes that have affected the quality of economic media text.

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